27 June 2005

caffeine can help athletes

Study Claims Caffeine Can Help Athletes@yahoo

According to a study conducted by researchers at the University of Birmingham School of Sport and Exercise Sciences, introducing caffeine into sports drinks increases the absorption rate of carbohydrates by 26 percent.

17 June 2005

UK's Olympic Institute

Olympic Institute plans unveiled@UK sport

The Institute would initially have three core strands:

• Institute of Sport – the new headquarters for the London region of the English Institute of Sport offering world-class support to elite athletes and national governing body performance programme across the region

• 2012 Sports and Exercise Medicine Centre – a leading integrated centre of medical excellence in the diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation of high performance athletes

• Olympic Research Centre – offering new opportunities for research, training and development across sport, culture, education, health and the environment.

16 June 2005

does altitude training work?

ALTITUDE TRAINING - DOES IT WORK? Current trends and research@USOC

optimal search strategies

Optimal search strategies for retrieving scientifically strong studies of treatment from Medline: analytical survey. BMJ

Objective To develop and test optimal Medline search strategies for retrieving sound clinical studies on prevention or treatment of health disorders.

Design Analytical survey.

Data sources 161 clinical journals indexed in Medline for the year 2000.

Main outcome measures Sensitivity, specificity, precision, and accuracy of 4862 unique terms in 18 404 combinations.

Results Only 1587 (24.2%) of 6568 articles on treatment met criteria for testing clinical interventions. Combinations of search terms reached peak sensitivities of 99.3% (95% confidence interval 98.7% to 99.8%) at a specificity of 70.4% (69.8% to 70.9%). Compared with best single terms, best multiple terms increased sensitivity for sound studies by 4.1% (absolute increase), but with substantial loss of specificity (absolute difference 23.7%) when sensitivity was maximised. When terms were combined to maximise specificity, 97.4% (97.3% to 97.6%) was achieved, about the same as that achieved by the best single term (97.6%, 97.4% to 97.7%). The strategies newly reported in this paper outperformed other validated search strategies except for two strategies that had slightly higher specificity (98.1% and 97.6% v 97.4%) but lower sensitivity (42.0% and 92.8% v 93.1%).

Conclusion New empirical search strategies have been validated to optimise retrieval from Medline of articles reporting high quality clinical studies on prevention or treatment of health disorders.

07 June 2005

IOC 2012 Evaluation Commission report

IOC releases 2012 Evaluation Commission report@IOC

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) today released the report prepared by the Evaluation Commission following its visits to the five Candidate Cities to host the Games of the XXX Olympiad in 2012 - Paris, New York, Moscow, London and Madrid(1).

06 June 2005

Access all articles

Access all articles@Gardian

The momentum towards free online publication of scientific research is becoming unstoppable.

02 June 2005

Professional Paths for Young Scientists

Professional Paths for Young Scientists@science magazine (PDF file)

Key points:
New factors in career choice
The need for lifetime learning
Scientific fundamentals for satisfying careers
Nonscientific skills
Academic position
Opportunities in industry
Government careers
Jobs beyond the bench

01 June 2005

The Race to Win the 2012 Olympics

The Race to Win the 2012 Olympics @wired

300 events. 11,000 athletes. 500,000 spectators. 16 days. But there's one Olympic competition you can't buy tickets for: the race to become the host city for the 2012 summer games. In early July, the International Olympic Committee will choose from among five finalists: New York, Paris, London, Moscow, and Madrid. As part of the bidding process, each city commits to a multibillion-dollar face-lift that includes the latest advances in architecture, communication, transportation, and energy conservation. Here are the highlights of how they plan to bring home the gold.